The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announced on Monday 8 July, at the 21st EU/Ukraine Summit in Kiev, a new aid package of €119 million.
The Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy, Johannes Hahn, signed with Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Stepan Kubiv, measures worth €10 million to support local economic diversification and small businesses, local civil society and citizens' involvement in decision-making and improvement of community security and public safety in the Sea of Azov region.
The EU is also financing the feasibility studies needed for an upgrade of road, railway and port infrastructure that connect the region with the rest of Ukraine and the EU, which could potentially mobilise more than €450 million in loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other partners.
The EU and Ukraine have also signed four agreements on facilitating vital reforms and implementing the Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (€44 million), decentralisation (€40 million), the fight against corruption (€15 million) and support for civil society (€10 million).
Beyond these concrete announcements, the EU-Ukraine Summit, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's first, allowed both sides to recall, in a joint statement, the fundamentals: support for strengthening Ukraine's political association and economic integration with the EU, the EU's unwavering support for Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and for its reforms.
Thus, both sides agreed to “fully” exploit the potential of the Association Agreement and stressed the importance of Kiev continuing to honour its commitments to this end. Since the agreement came into force in January 2016, bilateral trade flows have increased by 50%. The EU and Ukraine also look forward to further strengthening regulatory approximation in sectors such as the digital economy, trade facilitation, customs cooperation, justice and home affairs, within the framework of the Association Agreement.
The EU also underlines its “substantial and unwavering” support for the implementation of Ukraine's reforms and political measures. “We acknowledged the substantial progress made by Ukraine in its reform process, in areas such as health care, decentralisation, pensions, public administration, public procurement (...). We agreed on the importance of accelerating these efforts, in particular in the fight against corruption, including throughout this election year”, the statement underlines, adding that the parties welcome Ukraine's commitment to “push back on the disproportionate domestic influence of vested interests on the Ukrainian political, economic and media system ('deoligarchisation')”. The EU and Ukraine also recall the importance of continuing to ensure that Ukraine meets the visa liberalisation benchmarks and to accelerate reform efforts, “in particular in the fight against corruption and as regards judicial and law enforcement institutions”.
Both sides also agree on the need to complete the reform of the gas and electricity markets, including the completion of unbundling, with a view to gradual integration with the EU energy market.
In front of the press, the Ukrainian President strongly insisted on the need to have peace in his country and not to lift sanctions until the Minsk agreements are implemented and his country's sovereignty restored.
See the joint statement: https://bit.ly/2G1OYWZ (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)